Tag Archives: running

Want a fun way to increase your physical activity? Take my Survival Race Challenge. Don’t worry, you won’t have to fight to the death. All you need to do is run, walk, or hike in the month of August and record your mileage.

This is a great way to get together with friends and like-minded people and encourage each other to exercise. Whether it’s for health, fitness, weight loss, or fun, I hope Captive’s kick-butt heroine, Addy Dawson, inspires you to get out there and move your body.

Logging your mileage in the Survival Race Challenge enters you into a raffle for a $25 Amazon gift card and a signed copy of my sci-fi romance novel Captive: Book 1 in the Survival Race series.

Though the overall goal is to achieve the most mileage you can personally, the raffle prize will be awarded to one lucky entrant regardless of total distance or time. The winner will be selected randomly on Sept 1st and announced on the site and contacted by email.

All you need to do to sign up is click on this link Survival Race Challenge and create a free account at Endomondo. You can log your mileage manually or use your favorite tracking device like Garmin, iPhone, Timex, Polar, etc…

If you’re up for the challenge (and up for the fun), I’ll see see you in the Survival Race!

Edited to Add: By the way…My hero is trying to survive a challenge of his own. He’s up against another gladiator in the Hero Showdown at The Window Seat on a Rainy Day‘s blog. Would love for you to click over to there and vote for Max. He’s giving the other guy a run for his money, but needs more help. Can he count on you to keep him alive for the next round or will this be his ultimortem?

Like this:

This past Saturday, my husband, my son and I ran the Warrior Dash in Morristown NJ. If you’ve never heard of the Warrior Dash, it’s a grueling 5K adventure race where you conquer obstacles, leap fire, and crawl through mud beneath barbed wire! Why would anyone risk life and limb doing such a crazy thing? Well first of all…it’s fun! But most importantly the event raises money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

My warriors and me. “Before” picture.(Note: Son really was happy to be there. This is his warrior face.)

Wow what a crazy experience. The first part of the day was spent waiting 1½ hours to get on a bus from the parking lot to the race site a few miles away. There were tons of people there. The first wave of runners started at 9:00 and continued every ½ hour until 4:30. There were 6,960 competitors throughout the course of the day.

The running trail went up and down a mountain, the second mile wound its way through a muddy stream, and the last mile contained the majority of the obstacles like scaling walls, a lake to swim across, cargo nets to climb, fire, and sand and mud pits you had to crawl through beneath barbed wire. Yes it was real barbed wire. I know because I stopped to check at the first obstacle, plus a woman got her hair caught in a barb on the last obstacle and I helped her get it out. (clicking on the pictures enlarges them).

Scott running to the finish.

Gregory hurdling fire.

Me in the barbed wire mud pit. Mud is good for your skin, right?

While I was running and climbing ropes, I kept thinking of Max, my gladiator hero in my novel Captive: Book One of the Survival Race Series (coming 2013). He competes against other gladiators in a warrior race. However, not only do the contestants battle the terrain and obstacles, they have to battle ferocious beasts and each other. That’s right, in the Survival Race the last man alive wins. Thank goodness, we didn’t have to wield swords against our fellow warrior dashers on Saturday.

At the end of the race, water trucks were available for hosing off the competitors. You could drink beer and eat turkey legs (I’d been looking forward to a turkey leg days before the race), listen to loud music and have lots of fun watching the other tired and filthy people finish. There was a shoe pile for donating your shoes (if they stayed on). A friend of mine lost her shoe in the muddy stream and couldn’t find it again. She managed to find someone else’s sneaker and wound up finishing the race with two different shoes!

I’m very proud of my son; he did such a great job! And I am extremely proud of my husband who took 2nd in his age group. He was 27th overall out of 6,960 people!

My warriors and me. “After” picture

I’m sore, my knees are cut up and bruised (knee pads would have been good), and someone kicked me in the face going over a wall. It was a great time and can’t wait for the next one! I’m going for time at the next race. Who’s with me?

Have you ever competed in a Warrior Dash or similar challenge? What was your experience like?

After the crazy fun of Christmas part 1, 2 and 3 and a great week skiing with my family and friends (there were 16 of us!), I hardly had time to think about my goals for 2011. But finally, after giving some thought I wanted to share them with you. I figure I’ll be more accountable if I publicly state my goals.

At first, I came up with three goals:

1) Get published

2) Learn the last 3 Isshinryu weapons kata

3) Lose fat and gain muscle

Unfortunately, I realized those weren’t good goals. Why? Because they aren’t precise, measurable, or realistic. Especially when the success of the first two are contingent on other people. I have no control whether or not editors and publishers will love my story and feel it is marketable just as I have no control over how many weapon katas (karate forms) my sensei feels I am ready to learn.

So after a little more thought, I came up with some precise, measurable and attainable goals that will hopefully set me up for success in 2011.

1) Write five days a week. Every week. Even if it is only a sentence. Blogging doesn’t count. Only novel writing counts. The more I write, the better I’ll become and the more finished novels I’ll have to give to my agent to shop. This increases my chances of getting published. By not giving myself a daily word count to reach, I feel that this goal is attainable.

2) Practice all my katas three times a week. I wanted to go for everyday, but didn’t think that sounded realistic. If I missed a day, I’d be angry with myself and give up. By practicing, my sensei will see my proficiency and confidence and know I’m ready to move to the next kata.

3) Increase my exercise regimen with running and P90X. While, I’m not sure how much running I can do over the cold winter months (I much rather run in warmer weather), I do have a measurable goal for the P90X. My husband and I will be starting it tonight after work. This is a daily exercise program that continues for 90 days. I have done it before for about 40 days and then life got in the way. This year the goal is to reach the full 90.

So there you have it. I hope you can help keep me accountable. And if you’d like to share your goals (remember precise, realistic, and measurable) in the comments section, I can help keep you accountable too.